The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

New Mexico

I watched Jessica's face, looking for clues about how she feels about being here.

Jessica is studying the NorthWestern New Mexico landscape. The Colorado Plateau. Near the southern parts of the Rocky Mountains.

My birthplace, the Llano uplift area of Central Texas, has a distinctive look to it. So does here. Jessica can't help but feel like she is near her human 'home'.

Jessica was born Maria Guadalupe Rios, and the Rios family compound is to the south of here. Near the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

We have two family connections to this area. Morgan is half Apache on her mother's side. When Morgan and I went to an Apache reservation for a one-on-one week together, we did not come to the Mescalero reservation. We went to White Mountain, over in Arizona.

The first mother Denise's project illuminated had her child in a clinic in Gallup, which is inside the Navajo Reservation. The baby's mother is named Halona. She works as a physician's assistant at the Indian Health Center. It was the obvious place to have her daughter. Halona lives in the city with her mother, Malia The little girl is named Ajei, which means 'My Heart'. I take hope from that name that this little girl, however unplanned, is wanted.

As I understand it, the Navajo are a matriarchy. Mother, daughter, and granddaughter living together seemed to support that, although necessity is also probably a big factor. Vampires are a matriarchy as well, but for very different reasons.

Jessica felt my eyes on her. "I'm fine, Adrian."

"No one knows how fine you are more than me." I agreed.

"Flirt." Jessica looked away. "This can be hard land to farm. The weather is lovely for people: not so great for crops sometimes. My parents had a hybrid operation, not that we called it that back then. A mix of livestock and crops. Using the offal of one to fertilize the other. It was dirty and hard work. My parents paid my dowry with land and animal. Set up my godawful husband with a ready-made spread. I may have hated the air that man breathed, and that was pretty mutual, but he worked the land and the animals. Ran his little part of the ranch right. Part of why my parents liked him: He could farm and ranch. Even though it was just given to him along with my body, he worked. Part of the problem, actually. He thought his working hard gave him the right to do what he wanted to me. I was not a person. I was more like a cow. If he could have fucked a cow with as much pleasure as he did me?..."

Jessica smiled and did not finish that thought. "It's odd. It is not time and physical distance that made it easier to come here now. It is coming here with my family. My real one. The one I deserve. The man who worships me body and spirit and that is so completely mutual."

Another smile. "Our life together started here, too. In my condo. You and your broken body healing. Making love on every surface. Erasing my associations with this state and replacing them with endless love."

"Painting each other.." I reminded her.

"That too... and now I am here with my crazy smart and unexpected wife who I adore and who loves me so much it hurts. My cute as a button fiancé. The woman that found the reason for me to come back, whether she meant to or not."

"She is pretty awesome too." I said.

"Oh. I know. She does not look like the total badass she is. Stealth Badass. I love not only my life now, but how every single thing about it would have pissed off my human husband down to his core. Not even counting superstition and Vampire stuff, which would freak him out. He would have frothed and called me a lesbian bitch and a slut, whore, and every other name he could think of. He married me for land and resources, not because he knew a damn thing about love. Hell, he was pissed off because to deal with his lust, all he had was me. That was hate-fucking, pure and simple. I watched him die, but this is better revenge. Having this life."